Jean-François Richer PhD

Areas of Research

19th Century French NovelWhile I'm passionate about the entire "long 19th Century", my research activities focus on the role of sonorous references in Honoré de Balzac's _Human Comedy_.
"Sounds" are omnipresent in Balzac's prose. His characters moan, shout, whimper, sigh and whisper, and around them a vast menagerie neighs, bellows, moos or barks. Doors are shut, wood floors creak, staircases echo with footsteps, dresses “froufroutent” while carriages, omnibus and horses resonate on the mineral surfaces of the city. In Balzac’s narrative prose, places, animals, objects, people and their customs are unfailingly accompanied by their sounds. My research aims to, 1), explore the thematic networks audible in and around those fictional sounds and, 2), describe the narrative mechanisms at play in Balzac's novels as well as in the realist esthetic system in general.
Other areas of research include: role and representation of domestic architecture in 19th Century French narrative prose; education and/in literature.

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